Monday, Day 2- We Didn’t Come Here to Paint

Who doesn’t love Monday mornings? Here at Kid’s First, they’re our specialty. Everyone arrived pumped up for the first day and eager to see which kids were on the board. With an add-on or two, today’s total was 14 patients. What can we say, we like to start with a bang.

With only 3 operating tables but 4 surgeons, there’s plenty of hands wherever you need them. The day started with an open hip reduction by Dr. Fitch and a femur reduction by Dr. Andrews. Our “handy-man” Dr. Stutz (please get the pun) saw everything from syndactyly releases to cuboid osteotomies to upper extremity transfers. Rounding out the team was Dr. Mencio who also did a hip reduction (can’t let Dr. Fitch have all the fun!). After a long morning, the team was treated to homemade guacamole by some of the volunteers at the hospital. A well fed team is a happy team; you could say we’re guac-a-holics around here.

The afternoon pushed on, and surgeries continued into the night. The team wrapped up around 10:30 and half the team went home while the other half went to Pegaso, one of our favorite restaurants here. The last to leave were the recovery room nurses. What troopers they were! This brings me to today’s spotlight: our fabulous recovery room team!

While many people wear an array of hats on the trip, our main recovery room nurses are Heather, Lindsey, Amy, and Kathy. They do a magnificent job of monitoring the patients, keeping them pain free, and returning them to their families after surgery. With 3 surgeries going at a time, the recovery room can get pretty hectic with patients coming in and out, but that doesn’t intimidate the recovery room queens. Thanks for all you do ladies!

The end of the day seemed as though it would never come, but bellies full we returned home to sleep off our food coma and be up bright and early for what looks like will be an even longer day! After all, “we didn’t come here to paint.”